Lithium
by Arukewari
Summary: Hermione stared at the shivering wreck that was Draco Malfoy and wondered how she always managed to land herself in these situations. Warning: AU after OOTP and takes place in 6th year, drug abuse, m-rated romance


**A/N Summary: If Draco Malfoy hadn't staggered through those doors high on illicit drugs, Hermione would have thought studying Potions at 2 in the morning to be a brilliant idea. Warning: AU after OOTP and takes place in 6****th**** year, drug abuse, m-rated**

**Disclaimer: All the characters used in this story are created by JK Rowling and I do not claim ownership of them or the world of Harry Potter. Anything you may recognise is probably also JK Rowling's.**

* * *

Prologue

Hermione stared at the shivering wreck that was Draco Malfoy. Her eyes followed the thick trail of mud painted across the Potion-classroom's floor and wondered how she always managed to land herself in these situations.

After a couple of deep breaths, she twitched into action.

"What did you take?" she asked, watching the sunken, grey eyes flicker. She waited patiently as cracked lips shaped into words.

"Lithium," he croaked.

She almost let an inaudible _'Damn'_ slip past her lips. Abandoning her notes and bag on a nearby desk, she started rummaging through the potions and ingredients scattered across the four walls that loomed over them. She refused to let the brightness of her _Lumos_ fluctuate due to distraction and focused on finding an antidote.

"It's blue." Draco's voice was soft, wispy and floated across the room along with the dust she disturbed from the higher shelves.

Worried by his unfocused gaze, Hermione searched harder and faster, coming to a halt with concealed relief.

"Here, drink this." When Draco's hands threatened to drop the tiny vial, Hermione grabbed his chin to tip his head back. At the last moment, he jolted away and the first drop landed on his cheek. The fluid smeared a tear-tract down the angle of his jaw. A giggle burst through his lips.

"You idiot," Hermione snarled.

Without bothering to wipe the spoiled potion, she shoved the gaping end of the vial into Draco's mouth.

"Swallow," she ordered and watched his elegant throat undulate. Only when satisfied that the last drop had been drained, did she pull away.

_What were you thinking_? Hermione thought as she watched the lithe almost-man keel over. She propelled herself forward to catch the slumping weight but her maladroit save led to the resounding thump of a forehead whacking a stone floor. She winced.

Malfoy's body splayed across her waist, his right arm folded at an uncomfortable angle and his face pressed close enough to the floor that a couple of eyelashes caught on the thin irregularities of the stone. Her hand shook. Even the brain that had earned her the title of "smartest witch in her year" could not comprehend her current predicament… or his, because Draco Malfoy could not be taking illicit potions. Hermione refused to believe that the one person who had always beaten her at Potions – of all things – could be this incredibly stupid.

_These could kill you_, she wanted to yell at him, _your liver shot, your brain scrambled, your magic dissipated. What kind of moron are you?_

Her hand trembled as she smoothed it over his bangs and watched them fall away to reveal a blossoming bruise.

_Well if that's all you get from playing around with illicit potions that you are one lucky person_, Hermione thought as she slipped out from under him and stood to leave. Without even a glance backwards, and with her bag filled to the brim with books, Hermione walked out of the room and headed to her dorm. She hoped that he wouldn't remember their encounter and that a couple of hours of sleep could convince her that it had all been a rather bizarre nightmare.

* * *

No such luck. The next morning Hermione blinked at the mirror with a foaming toothbrush dangling from between her lips. The loud chatter of her roommates had disturbed her Saturday lie-in – something that she was not prone to but had attempted regardless.

"Ron wants to know what's taking so long," Lavender yelled at her from the other side of the door and Hermione gargled the last of the toothpaste.

"Tell them to go without me," she yelled back, her voice slightly muffled by the thick towel pressed against her wet mouth.

Her roommates took the cacophonic rumble of a typical morning with them as they left for brunch. Settling cross-legged on her ready-made bed, Hermione shut her blood-shot eyes.

_This is why you shouldn't study in the middle of the night,_ she thought. Sneaking into the Potions classroom to slip in a couple hours of brewing had seemed like an excellent idea last night. Now, not so much.

_Well, it really wouldn't have been so bad if Malfoy hadn't staggered through the door, high on illicit drugs._

With a sigh, Hermione spread out her notes and split open a textbook, but she couldn't focused on individual words, let alone sentences and meanings.

_I think I hate you even more,_ she thought as her mind wandered to the stretched, unconscious body of a certain blond Slytherin.

She loathed the guy. The only time she let herself even acknowledge his presence was when she received better grades than him. Otherwise, that 11 year old girl who sobbed quietly to herself each time he insulted her stayed locked away behind mentally erected bars.

She wanted him to catch a cold, she wanted him to suffer a fever so terrible it would feel like his head was being bashed open every time he gasped for breath. Hermione curled in on herself, tucking her face between her knees. But she didn't want him to take those potions again. It was a fate worse than death, to wither away like that and she wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even Voldemort.

So with an odd feeling weighing on her chest – possibly like guilt, Hermione wrapped a winter coat around herself and jammed woolly gloves on her hands. Guilt for that … Hermione rolled her eyes angrily and swept out of Gryffindor tower. This was just typical. If she had been sorted into Ravenclaw, she was sure she wouldn't feel the urge to commit unnecessary acts of bravery and kindness.

She tried the potion classroom first, although she did not believe Malfoy would still be there. When she tripped over his legs and a loud grunt rent the air, she already regretted her impulse to help the moronic ferret.

"Granger." Malfoy's voice was neither a statement nor a question. He just sounded confused.

"Malfoy."

"What are you doing here?" Malfoy rubbed his forehead, his mud-caked hand leaving brown flecks in his bangs and Hermione waited for comprehension to dawn on him. She hoped it wouldn't take long; she needed to get back to her essay.

When the light-bulb switched on in his tiny brain, Malfoy's eyes widened comically and Hermione would have laughed in any other situation and with any other person.

"You…" he stuttered, then paused. "What the hell were you doing here at two in the morning?"

_Offense is the best defence_, Hermione whispered to herself. _Don't get agitated, you know what he's like._

"I would ask you the same question, but considering you were high on lithium and Godric knows what else, the question would be rather pointless don't you think?" she said coolly.

Malfoy did not make a sound as he stood even though she knew he must be in seven kinds of hell. The drop from a high was excruciating… or so she had heard. She had no intention of finding out for herself.

"What were you thinking?" she hissed at him.

"If you tell anyone what happened I'll –,"

"– Tell my father," she interrupted in a poor imitation of his drawl and laughed. "Even he won't be able to stop you from being chucked into Azkaban."

Malfoy sneered at her but Hermione saw the cracks in his mask. If she had not been glaring at him so intently and his crashing drop from a self-induced high had not been so violent, she probably wouldn't have noticed. But as it was, she did, and knew that a broken man stood before her.

"Stop taking them," she stated, not harshly nor caringly.

"It's not that easy."

"I know."

Malfoy broke eye-contact and stared at the labelled vials littered across the shelves.

"I want to." His fingers twitched and pale eyelids closed in pain. Admitting a weakness was agony to him, and Hermione understood that.

"I know."

His eyes caught hers briefly before he strode to the door. He stepped out, then turned briefly to mutter, "Don't…"

"I won't."

He didn't say 'thank you'. She wasn't expecting him to.

* * *

Hermione did not think of Malfoy until she saw him in Runes the next Friday and he didn't have an essay to hand in. The professor yelled and the blond glared. Nothing had changed. Except everything had, because now Hermione noticed the purple bruises smeared under his eyes, noticed the convulsing hands and dilated pupils, noticed the rasping staccato of his breath.

He was killing himself.

And damn him for getting her involved.

"You need to stop," Hermione started and raised her hand when Draco opened his mouth. "Or at least make it less obvious so that _I _don't feel guilty every time I look at you."

Malfoy shut his mouth. The stink of Myrtle's bathroom crawled up her nose and she blinked to dissipate the sting in her eyes. Hermione had dragged him here with a well-placed glance and nod at the end of Runes.

"You feel guilty?" He raised a delicate brow.

"Yes. For not turning you in." Only partially true, but Hermione didn't need him to know that. Rubbing the bridge of her nose with her index finger she sighed. "you just need to be more careful, alright?"

Malfoy gave her an odd look. "Ok-ay," he said slowly.

"Really?"

He shrugged and after another moment of standing in sewage stink, Hermione frowned. "Well, okay then."

She turned to leave.

"Wait."

_Trust him to wait until the last moment to say something,_ she thought with an exasperated sigh and one foot toeing the exit. The door swivelled shut behind her.

"Yes?"

Malfoy shoved his hands in his pocket. "I need help."

"You want my help?" she asked. That sounded… off somehow.

He shook his head. "No, I'm just admitting I need help."

And for the first time in a week, Hermione smiled.

* * *

**Okay, so here is my first Hermione/ Draco fanfiction. Right now it is more like a narration and prologue but I'm definitely making romance the main focus of the story in later (longer chapters). So do please take time to review, I really want to know what you think of the plot, writing style, characters or anything else you can think of.**


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